Android 4.0 update for Motorola Xyboard leaked

Mark Raby, 6th July 2012

Motorola's Droid Xyboard tablet has been unofficially upgraded to version 4.0 of Android.

A user who goes by the handle Mattlgroff posted a message on the XDA-developers.com forums with instructions on how Xyboard owners could upgrade their device to the new version of Google's mobile OS, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The update is available for both the 8.2-inch and 10.1-inch version of the Xyboard. Motorola has not confirmed when it planned to release the update but has said the Xyboard is in the list of eligible Ice Cream Sandwich devices.

Ice Cream Sandwich is one of the biggest updates to Android yet, and includes such features as scanning your face to unlock the phone, a much more robust speech-to-text software program, and an entire platform of data sharing that focuses on Near Field Communication (NFC).

Several other manufacturers have pledged support for the new update, and a bunch of phones currently running an older version of Android.

Ice Cream Sandwich is now powering a decent amount of active Android devices, despite having a slow initial rollout in the early part of the year.

Google sees Android 4.0 as a big reset button on the mobile platform, since it has much stricter hardware guidelines that it hopes will help prevent fragmentation in the future.

Of course, the announcement last week of Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, sort of quashes those hopes.